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Amid concerns over aging mechanical equipment and violations pending with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Fredericksburg City Council received an update on the city’s waste water treatment plant during its regular meeting Monday.

The city has already installed two new surface aerators in February to supplement the existing aeration equipment and will install six new brush aerators in May to help alleviate TCEQ’s immediate concerns.

“We were not meeting some of our discharge permit regulations,” Assistant City Engineer Kris Kneese said. “This also resulted in high operation and maintenance costs. We added $100,000 to the operations budget last year, just to cover this year’s expenses, because we felt that there were going to be some additional issues.”

City of Fredericksburg water customers will have to make adjustments to their outdoor watering schedules after the Fredericksburg City Council approved a water conservation ordinance at its regular meeting Monday evening,

Effective May 1, the ordinance will allow watering only between 5-9 a.m. and 7-11 p.m. in most stages, although the city is expected to drop from Stage 4 restrictions to Stage 3 restrictions once the changes take effect.

“We understand that it’s going to take a while for a lot of folks to make this transition,” city director of public works and utilities Clinton Bailey said. “Our intention is not to just lower the hammer on the people that are watering outside of their prescribed times or days and hand out a lot of violations.”

Fredericksburg Theater Company’s production of “Lost in Yonkers” will open Friday, April 11, at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are now on sale.

The Neil Simon play will be the final production of FTC’s 17th season.

“Yonkers” will be performed April 11-27. Friday and Saturday performances will be 7:30 p.m., with Sunday matinee performances being held at 2 p.m.

Advance tickets for most productions are $20 for adults and $5.50 for youth 18 and under. Special group discounts are available.

For more on this story, read this week’s print and online editions of the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post. If you are a print subscriber, your full online subscription is free. All you need to do is call 830-997-2155 to get a password. If you are not a subscriber, call 997-2155 or click on the ‘Subscribe’ button on the left side of the home page and sign up today!

Fredericksburg-based writer and instructor Christine Granados was inducted into the Texas Institute of Letters on Saturday at the Embassy Suites in San Marcos.

Granados joins about 300 living and late writers in the institute, many of whom have shaped Texas literature, including Larry McMurtry, Stephen Harrigan, Liz Carpenter, Jan Reid, Joe Nick Patoski and former San Antonio Poet Laureate Carmen Tafolla.

Granados teaches writing at Texas Tech University-Fredericksburg, and is a contributor to Texas Monthly (where she will have an essay in the May issue), and other publications.

For more on this story, read this week’s print and online editions of the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post. If you are a print subscriber, your full online subscription is free. All you need to do is call 830-997-2155 to get a password. If you are not a subscriber, call 997-2155 or click on the ‘Subscribe’ button on the left side of the home page and sign up today!

PIT STOP — Jon Pankratz (417, right) of Fredericksburg leads a pack of bicyclists at a break stop at the Hilltop Café during the 65-mile Medio Fondo portion of the April 5 Texas Gran Fondo bicycle race in town and in the Hill Country. The 59-year-old Pankratz finished 27th overall among the 113 bicyclists in that race which included 80 men and 33 women. More pictures of the “Tour de France”-style race can be found on D1 of the April 9, 2014 edition of the paper. — Standard-Radio Post/Richard Zowie

‘BUSY AS BEES’ — Shutterbugs have been having a field day this week snapping photos of wildflowers that are now blanketing the undulating hills of Gillespie County in blues, reds, yellows, pinks, whites … well, you get the picture. We are asking readers of the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post to submit their best 2014 wildflower photos (yes, cute kids are allowed) and we’ll post them to our Facebook page. Some of the best pictures might even find their way into print — like this early submission by Tucker Findley, who captured a bluebonnet-hovering bee on Fisher Bonn Road. Send photos at their highest resolution possible as separate .jpg attachments to: fbgnews@fredericksburgstandard.com or drop off a copy at the newspaper office, 712 West Main Street. Be sure to include your name, the names of anyone in the photo (left to right,) where the photo was taken, as well as your address and daytime phone number so we have a way to get in touch.

Vintage tractors of all sizes will be taking a stroll around Gillespie County Saturday as the Hill Country Antique Tractor and Engine Club hosts their annual Bluebonnet Tractor Ride.

This year’s route will take the members and other interested parties on a 16-mile loop beginning at the Rheingold Schoolhouse on North Grape Creek Road, with lunch at the Cave Creek Schoolhouse before heading back to Rheingold.

Drivers are asked to be at the Rheingold School by 8 a.m. with a drivers’ meeting at 8:30 a.m. before the 9 a.m. ride.

There are no restrictions on the age of tractors participating, although those driving newer models need to understand that the pace of the ride will be geared toward antique models.

Fried fish and all the trimmings will be served by the Stonewall Volunteer Fire Department and First Responders on Sunday, April 13, during the Spring Drive-Through Fish Fry.

The menu for the drive-through, carry-out only meal includes fried fish, pinto beans, potato salad, hushpuppies and a dessert.

Serving will be from 11 a.m. until sold out at the Stonewall VFD Fire Station, located at the corner of RR 1623 North and U.S. Highway 290.

The suggested donation is $8 per plate.

Proceeds from the Spring Drive-Through Fish Fry will go toward paying off the building loan.

For more on this story, read this week’s print and online editions of the Fredericksburg Standard-Radio Post. If you are a print subscriber, your full online subscription is free. All you need to do is call 830-997-2155 to get a password. If you are not a subscriber, call 997-2155 or click on the ‘Subscribe’ button on the left side of the home page and sign up today!

The Fredericksburg Garden Club will host its annual spring plant sale on Saturday in the Kinderhalle at Marktplatz.

The sale begins at 9 a.m. and ends at noon, or when all the plants are sold. Payment is only by cash or check.

The local chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) and the Fredericksburg Middle School horticulture classes under teacher Tim Shipman will co-host the event.

A wide assortment of naturally drought-tolerant plants will be offered, including culinary and ornamental herbs; a wide selection of Texas native and adapted perennials, grasses and shrubs; pass-along plants and cuttings from local gardeners; and selected vegetable plants.

In the interest of fairness, no one will be permitted to select or purchase plants before the official 9 a.m. starting time.

• April has been proclaimed as “Child Abuse Prevention Month” in Fredericksburg and Gillespie County by both Mayor Jeryl Hoover and County Judge Mark Stroeher. And today is “Go Blue Day” in the city and county "to show unity to 'Keep Kids Safe'."

• Fredericksburg Garden Club will meet at 2 p.m. today in the sanctuary of Pioneer Museum. A program on “vermiculture” or “vermicomposting,” the raising and production of earth worms and their products, will be presented by Patty Zolen, president of the Hill Country Master Gardeners.